US Recession Postponed Again As Retail Sales Soar, Jobless Claims Drop

Consumerism! It's a helluva thing. America's legions of incorrigible spendthrifts didn't get the recession memo last month, when retail sales were much stronger than expected, according to the last of this week's top-tier US macro data. (There are a couple of housing updates on deck, but those won't move the STIR needle.) Headline nominal spending on goods plus restaurant bills and bar tabs rose 1% from the prior month, more than double the expected gain and the strongest advance since the ano